2nd Race weekend in series turns out bright in several ways
We set up pits Friday night to a few spits of rain and concern that it was going to be a wet weekend as reported by the local weather. Instead, our prayers were answered.
The days were warm and sunny resulting in optimum track temperature and excellent traction.
I got some quality time with Dave of GP Suspension and found that I needed to pull my shock to have it bled and have a few more turns of compression added. So, Saturday afternoon found me hard at work tearing my bike down to turn the shock over to him and put on some new rubber.
I re-assembled, and went over everything twice to be sure I didn't miss safetywiring or tightening anything. Satisfied, I locked everything up and went home for a good meal and some sleep.
I woke to hazy skies and and the familiar butterflies that preceed any race.
A few laps in the morning warm-up told me that my bike was a little more planted.
I scrubbed the tires in and then tried a few hot laps getting a pass or two to feel the setup.
I brought it in and let him know I was getting a light front end and a bit of lazy headshake
transitioning from turn 5 to 6 under hard power. He added a click of comp. damepning and I tried it again. Dave got it dead on. The bike felt planted and quick.
Quick enough to drop my laptimes into the 1:17's.
This is a new record for me. I haven't taken a racing school. I've only taken laps at trackdays and received some feedback from other racers watching me. I listened, learned and experimented.
Since we're racing the clock to qualify for expert, we're officially NOT racing each other.
Well, anytime the green flag dropped, it was on. In our minds and actions, we WERE racing.
We took passing opportunities, we out breaked each other, and had flat out drag races down the front strait.
The posted results for me saw an 8th place finish in the morning and a 6th place finish in the afternoon. This was among 100cc, 750cc and my 600cc class bikes. Several 600cc riders placed ahead of many 100cc riders. I attribute my second race finish to an awesome start and determination to hold my place and I passed quite a few to improve my advantage. I had a simple strategy; Pick the guy in front, get by him, then the next and so on. When I experienced a shifting problem downshifting out of the back straight (when my GP linkage started binding) on the last 3 laps of the final race, I lost the guy I was targeting and got passed by 2 others. One of which I recovered in the braking zone at the end of our front straight. I began working on the second when we got the white flag. I picked my favorite passing turn to get by him on the outside, but he held me to the checker. It was an awesome competition.
After this weekend, I have 2 races under my belt with average laptimes WELL below the minimum average to graduate. Add a rain race from the previous weekend and I'm one away from qualifying for expert. One more race weekend to go and if the organization feels I'm ready, I'm off to swim in the big pond.
Many thanks to my sponsors and help in our pits; LP Team Privateer; Sven, our Pit Boss and racer-in-waiting; Steve, our latest speed addict; Dave from R&D Machine for his support and endless chiding at our pits, and a big thanks to Byron from LightSpeed Designs for his dedication and timliness. He and his business are an asset to this organization.
I'm looking forward to next month and making more improvement and continuing to feed my passion -- going fast.
Ciao!
Dale from 737Racing
The days were warm and sunny resulting in optimum track temperature and excellent traction.
I got some quality time with Dave of GP Suspension and found that I needed to pull my shock to have it bled and have a few more turns of compression added. So, Saturday afternoon found me hard at work tearing my bike down to turn the shock over to him and put on some new rubber.
I re-assembled, and went over everything twice to be sure I didn't miss safetywiring or tightening anything. Satisfied, I locked everything up and went home for a good meal and some sleep.
I woke to hazy skies and and the familiar butterflies that preceed any race.
A few laps in the morning warm-up told me that my bike was a little more planted.
I scrubbed the tires in and then tried a few hot laps getting a pass or two to feel the setup.
I brought it in and let him know I was getting a light front end and a bit of lazy headshake
transitioning from turn 5 to 6 under hard power. He added a click of comp. damepning and I tried it again. Dave got it dead on. The bike felt planted and quick.
Quick enough to drop my laptimes into the 1:17's.
This is a new record for me. I haven't taken a racing school. I've only taken laps at trackdays and received some feedback from other racers watching me. I listened, learned and experimented.
Since we're racing the clock to qualify for expert, we're officially NOT racing each other.
Well, anytime the green flag dropped, it was on. In our minds and actions, we WERE racing.
We took passing opportunities, we out breaked each other, and had flat out drag races down the front strait.
The posted results for me saw an 8th place finish in the morning and a 6th place finish in the afternoon. This was among 100cc, 750cc and my 600cc class bikes. Several 600cc riders placed ahead of many 100cc riders. I attribute my second race finish to an awesome start and determination to hold my place and I passed quite a few to improve my advantage. I had a simple strategy; Pick the guy in front, get by him, then the next and so on. When I experienced a shifting problem downshifting out of the back straight (when my GP linkage started binding) on the last 3 laps of the final race, I lost the guy I was targeting and got passed by 2 others. One of which I recovered in the braking zone at the end of our front straight. I began working on the second when we got the white flag. I picked my favorite passing turn to get by him on the outside, but he held me to the checker. It was an awesome competition.
After this weekend, I have 2 races under my belt with average laptimes WELL below the minimum average to graduate. Add a rain race from the previous weekend and I'm one away from qualifying for expert. One more race weekend to go and if the organization feels I'm ready, I'm off to swim in the big pond.
Many thanks to my sponsors and help in our pits; LP Team Privateer; Sven, our Pit Boss and racer-in-waiting; Steve, our latest speed addict; Dave from R&D Machine for his support and endless chiding at our pits, and a big thanks to Byron from LightSpeed Designs for his dedication and timliness. He and his business are an asset to this organization.
I'm looking forward to next month and making more improvement and continuing to feed my passion -- going fast.
Ciao!
Dale from 737Racing
